The present invention relates to a technique for filling ink in an ink cartridge of a recording apparatus for effecting printing on a recording medium by ejecting ink droplets through a nozzle opening upon receiving the supply of ink from a replaceable ink cartridge, as well as an apparatus therefor.
For example, an ink-jet type recording apparatus includes a recording head for ejecting ink droplets through a nozzle opening by supplying a drive signal to the piezoelectric vibrator, the heat generating unit, or the like in correspondence with print data, and pressurizing ink in a pressure generating chamber by energy generated by a piezoelectric vibrator, a heat generating unit, or the like, and an ink cartridge for supplying ink thereto.
The print quality is determined by the resolution of the recording head and is greatly influenced by the viscosity of the ink, the degree of blurring on a recording medium, and the like. Therefore, with a view to improving the print quality, efforts have been made to improve the ink characteristics and improve a drive signal to be supplied to the recording head, and efforts have been made to improve maintenance conditions including the period of blank ejection and forcible ejection in a capped state in order to prevent the clogging of the nozzle opening.
Thus, only when not just the ink characteristics but the ink characteristics, the method of driving the recording head and the like are improved as a whole, the print quality of the recording apparatus improves. It may be possible to incorporate the results based on such technological development into ink-jet type recording apparatuses that are newly manufactured. However, in order to apply such technological development to a recording apparatus which has left the manufacturer, it becomes necessary to bring the recording apparatus to the manufacturer and replace its storage unit in which control data is recorded, so that it is almost impossible to do so in the light of such as the cost and trouble.
Therefore, as disclosed in JP-A-5-193127 and the like, a technique has been proposed in which an ink cartridge is provided with a storage unit, and the characteristics of the ink, the amount of ink, driving conditions, and the like are stored in this storage unit, while, on the recording apparatus side, the driving conditions are adjusted in correspondence with these items of information.
Incidentally, as for the ink cartridges which are conventionally discarded as expendables and the cartridges integrated with recording heads as well, there has been a growing need for the manufacturers to collect them as practically as possible so as to strive for the protection of the environment. In conjunction with this need, an attempt has been made to fill the ink into the collected ink cartridges and recycle them. However, collection expenses and the cost of inspection are additionally incurred, so that there is a problem in that the cost of the recycled products increases.